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The DJI Mavic Air is the foldable drone that's so compact yet so powerful that it's ready to slip out of your jacket pocket  and  record your next adventure in 4K video. You don't have to choose one over the other in 2018. That's the futuristic-sounding idea behind this new consumer drone, which is more sophisticated than the DJI Spark and priced cheaper than the DJI Mavic Pro. The Mavic Air hovers that perfect middle-ground offering, high-end specs and a lower-end price, even if this shiny new gadget remains an expensive investment. It has just about every bell and whistle you could ever ask for, according to our initial tests, from 12MP photos to 32MP panoramic pictures to 21-minute battery life. Importantly, the DJI Mavic Air is easy to fly thanks to improved object avoidance systems and gesture controls, giving this drone more mainstream appeal.

Personal Technology is getting a bad rap these days. It keeps getting more addictive: Notifications keep us  glued to our phones . Autoplaying episodes lure us into Netflix binges. Social awareness cues—like the "seen-by" list on Instagram Stories—enslave us to obsessive, ouroboric usage patterns. (Blink twice if you've ever closed Instagram, only to re-open it reflexively.) Our devices, apps, and platforms, experts  increasingly   warn , have been engineered to capture our attention and ingrain habits that are (it seems self evident) less than healthy. Unless, that is, you're talking about fitness trackers. For years, the problem with Fitbits, Garmins, Apple Watches, and their ilk has been that they aren't addictive  enough . About  one third  of people who buy fitness trackers stop using them within six months, and  more than half  eventually abandon them altogether. As for that guy at work whose Fitbit appears to be bionically integrated...

The smart speaker market has gone from strength to strength over 2017, with loads of new devices and brands entering the fray. But when it comes to pure sales, it appears that a clear leader is emerging, and that's Amazon. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Amazon's Echo devices are shipping at a rate of three to one when compared to its nearest rival, Google Home. According to the report, that puts sales at an estimated 20 million for the Amazon Echo range, versus 7 million for Google Home. The numbers have been collated up to September 2017, which means the all-important Black Friday and Christmas sales periods have not been factored in. But given the growing brand awareness around the Echo line, and the fact that Amazon consistently pushes tempting deals around its smart speakers, it'd be hard to imagine that ratio having shifted dramatically in the meantime. More to come Both Google and Amazon have expanded their smart speak...

The Huawei P11 is a promising flagship smartphone, as the Chinese firm finished off 2017 strongly with the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro. [Update: The latest Huawei P11 rumors suggest it'll see a February 2018 launch, and will arrive sporting technology similar to Face ID from the iPhone X.] Huawei has improved its smartphones every year, and it's now at the point where it's seriously challenging the established names in the mobile game. It's the Huawei P11 which is the next big hitter to step up to the plate, and it builds on the well rounded, if a little unspectacular Huawei P10 from early 2017. The Huawei P11 launch could be just a couple of months away now.

If you’re hoping to see a set of Apple’s AirPods under the tree this year, you may find yourself reenacting the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Jingle All The Way. The Bluetooth earphones are selling out online and in stores. If you want to buy straight from the source, Apple is now shipping any new orders of AirPods in January. The official Apple site – on the US side – claims that orders will be fulfilled in seven working days which (at the time of writing) is after Christmas but still in 2017.  When you actually click through to select a delivery date and enter your Zip Code, however, you’re given a delivery date in January. On the UK side, you don’t even get that far, with the site claiming the first delivery will be January 2.  What’s more, third-party retailers are also selling out, with online retailers estimating January shipping and physical stores appearing short on stock too. Long story short, it’s worth heading to your local Apple store as ...

Magic Leap has finally revealed the Magic Leap One, its first consumer-orientated augmented reality goggles, are set to release to the public in 2018. After years of hype with very little sign of a product to match, it now seems the company is ready to unleash its AR technology upon the world. Similar in principle to Microsoft's HoloLens, the Magic Leap One is worn around the head and over the eyes, but looks more like a pair of ski goggles than the VRor mixed reality headsets we've seen previously. Shipping with a handheld pointer controller, the unit works independently of a games console or phone, instead sharing processing duties between a computer embedded in the goggles, and a separate processing unit that sits in a puck that can be worn on a belt or in a shoulder pad. That puck is said to have power relative to a MacBook Pro or gaming laptop, with the headset keeping track of "multiple input modes including voice, gesture, head pose and ey...